I don't know about you, but I have always had a soft spot for the silliness in life. Silly books, silly movies, silly websites -- they are all precious to me. When I've had a bad day, I can put in Airplane or The Naked Gun and just laugh my cares away. I miss terribly the SatireWire website. It's still out there if you want to see it, but it's not being updated any more. I loved headlines such as "Axis of Just As Evil" and "AT&T to Cut Workforce by 120%". The Onion is also priceless. I gave Jeff an Onion calendar for Christmas one year and we had a ball reading the made-up stories. One of our favorites was a photo of a grumpy owl, accompanied by the surprising headline, "Owls are Assholes!" For some reason, that really tickled us and we just have to utter that phrase to make each other laugh.
I have two books of comic film reviews that are always fun to read. One of them is If You Ask Me..., which contains the collected writings from Libby Gelman-Waxler, a critic for Premiere magazine. Libby is actually the creation of the extremely clever and witty Paul Rudnick. I loved Libby's review of Wild Orchid, the scandalous Mickey Rourke flick with Carre Otis and Jacqueline Bissett. She also is a big fan of Dennis Quaid, especially when he deigns to appear nude. I also have a copy of Bad Movies We Love, which was written by two of the film critics at Movieline magazine, Edward Margulies and Stephen Rebello. This book doesn't take on the well-known stinkers like Plan 9 from Outer Space. Those movies are too easy; everyone knows how bad they are. If my memory serves, the first movie they skewer is Fatal Attraction. I love the pictures in the center of the book; the captions are hilarious.
In today's world of high prices and bickering politicians (to name just a few of our ills), silliness is necessary. No, strike that. It's a requirement.
1 comment:
We have the art of silliness down to a science. When we are walking through a store, we like to do jazz hands just for the heck of it. We make the kids follow one of us, while the other brings up the rear. I usually get the front, because I have no rear. Anyway, I usually try to walk funnt and see who actually does it. All of us usually. We get the strangest looks. I make it a point to tell my kids that how silly they are is one of my favorite things about them. And sometimes, owls are assholes!
Love you always,
C
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